Alphabet Soup (Dundurn Press) — Arriving on January 28, 2025
Now Available for Pre-Order!

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A tasty yet experimental recipe of creative memoir in poetic prose cooked up for your consumption — one letter at a time.

Alphabet Soup, A. Gregory Frankson’s first full-length foray into the world of creative non-fiction, is a poetic exploration of the deeper meaning to be found by stirring up the depths of one’s most personal lived experiences. It is twenty-six letters of memoir that dive deeply into the scalding heat of memory through a thematic approach that recalls and reframes love, death, joy, sorrow, victory, devastation, and more, then serves it piping hot in tantalizing doses to sate voracious literary appetites.

Using prose that is by turns startling, revelatory, humorous, sorrowful, and triumphant, this authoritative compilation of introspections on the nature of living engages the mind and heart in the difficult, unending work of grappling with one’s past in the present with the hope it can help to create a more satisfying future.

Coming in Summer 2026 — africanthology Vol II: Strange Truth of Black Canadian Fiction

To propose a submission, fill out the form at THIS LINK by June 30, 2024. For more information about the anthology project, CONTACT THE EDITOR.

Edited by A. Gregory Frankson, AfriCANthology II: Strange Truth of Black Canadian Fiction will be a collection of short fiction from emerging and established Black writers across Canada. The stories will explore, through a creative literary lens, issues rooted in their authors’ racial identity (and/or intersecting identities) that they regularly confront in their lives, particularly in relation to the unique challenges facing Black literary artists in the contemporary Canadian context. The book will include stories from about a dozen artists who embody the geographic, gender, ethnocultural and artistic diversity of Canadian Black fiction.

africanthology Vol. I: Perspectives of Black Canadian Poets
(2022 — #1 Best Seller on amazon!)

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Greg’s Contributions: “The Blackened Room” (poem), “Send Me Back” (conversation with Reed “iZrEAL” Jones), and “The Green Canvas Knapsack” (personal essay)

Truth spoken plainly and powerfully is difficult to dismiss and impossible to ignore. Edited with purpose by Greg Frankson, AfriCANthology: Perspectives of Black Canadian Poets brings together some of Canada's most influential dub, page, and spoken word poetic voices and gives them space to speak freely about their personal journeys in piercing verse and unapologetic prose. Just as individual experiences of Blackness are diverse across Canada, each contributor recounts aspects of navigating their unique personal, professional, and artistic paths in Black skin with fearless candour and audacious forthrightness. Unforgettable in its charged emotional potency and stirring in its unrelenting urgency, AfriCANthology: Perspectives of Black Canadian Poets is a stunning tour de force by a celebrated gathering of truthtellers that demands we comprehensively reassess the present and reimagine the future of Blackness in Canada. Released February 1, 2022.

Cerebral confections (2021 — #1 best seller on amazon!)

For the first time, a decade’s worth of the most impactful work from award-winning spoken word artist and poet A. Gregory Frankson is now available in one convenient collection. Cerebral Confections is a curated compilation of Frankson’s most inspiring work across a decade of his life exploring topics such as mental health, fatherhood, love, loss, and everything in between. From coast to coast, Frankson travels across Canada recording his thoughts, observations, and insights in his own unique poetic voice and style. A champion of mental health awareness and combatting anti-Black racism, never before has Frankson’s voice been more important. Cerebral Confections will delight both the mind and soul. Released November 13, 2021.

a weekly dose of ritallin (2015)

A Weekly Dose of Ritallin is a curated selection of Greg Frankson's original works as presented over two years on Here and Now Toronto. The A Weekly Dose of Ritallin segment cracked open Toronto with soulfully intelligent, locally invested and socially conscious poetry every Thursday afternoon at 4:20. This edition of Greg’s lyrical commentaries include moments, memories, news and issues that defined Toronto and the times. These poems share snapshots of an apocalyptic, exhilarating time in Canadian history through the lens of one of the nation's most insightful social commentators. Greg’s poems vibrate on the page. The poems were initially heard on radio but re-reading reveals deeper meaning and subtler nuances that may have been missed. Experience his visceral impact in tangible form with online links to access the original audio files. Topical, current, diverse and unabashedly challenging, A Weekly Dose of Ritallin is the best of our contemporary affairs as chronicled and shared live on the airwaves over two amazing years. Released October 1, 2015.

lead on a page (2012)

Greg provides a poetic form of leadership within the global mental health movement - a movement that seeks improved services, greater awareness, reduced stigma and full acceptance for consumers-survivors-service users no matter where they live in the world. Released December 30, 2012.

cerebral stimulation (2006)

Poetry meant for the page uses imagery and metaphor to speak its universal truths, while spoken word uses performance to captivate, animate and teach. Cerebral Stimulation showcases the gritty realities and emotional tableaux of that rarest of poets - one that shines as brightly on the page as on the stage. This premiere collection of works from one of Canada's emerging poetic talents is destined to become a hallmark of the next generation of African Canadian literature. Released January 2006.

African leadership: powerful paradigms for the 21st century (2023)

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Contains poetic chapter summaries Greg wrote to demonstrate the role poetry plays in African leadership traditions

African Leadership is an edited collection enriched by the people who have lived and experienced indigenous leadership first-hand, demonstrating how African leadership is distinctive from usual Western hegemonic paradigms. Providing an in-depth discussion of the components, context, followers, and skills that contribute to the success of African leaders, African Leadership concludes with meaningful applications for 21st-century leaders globally. Released March 14, 2023.

nothing without us too (2022 — winner of the 2023 Prix Aurora Award for Best Related Work)

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Contains Greg’s first-ever work of short fiction, entitled “At the Terminus”

Nothing Without Us Too follows the theme of Nothing Without Us (a 2020 Prix Aurora Award finalist), featuring more stories by authors who are disabled, d/Deaf or hard-of-hearing, Blind or visually impaired, neurodivergent, Spoonie, and/or who manage mental illness. The lived experiences of their protagonists are found across many demographics—such as race, culture, financial status, religion, gender, age, and/or sexual orientation. We want to present these stories because diversity is reality, and it belongs in literary and genre fiction. So, whether we’re being welcomed to Sensory Hell by hotel staff, witnessing a stare-down between a convenience store worker and an arrogant vampire, or unsure if our social media account is magic, these tales can teleport us elsewhere yet resonate deep within. Released September 15, 2022.

the great black north: Contemporary AFrican CAnadian Poetry (2013 — winner of the 2014 Robert Kroetsch Poetry Award)

“Dear Shadow” (poem)

The Great Black North is a contemporary remix of the story of Black Canada. Told through the intertwining tapestry of poetic forms found on the page and stage, The Great Black North presents some missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that help fit together a poetic picture of the Black Canadian experience. Many African Canadians know their history in North America since the 17th century. However, the rest of the world may be unaware of the history of enslaved Africans and slave auctions north of the 49th parallel, as well as the free Blacks, Loyalists and Maroons who made their journeys to the “promised land” of Canada. The Great Black North should be a valuable resource for the preservation of culture that is written and/or performed as dub poetry, spoken word and slam. Released January 1, 2013.

that not forgotten (2012)

“The Voice Within” and “Just Breathe” (poems)

That Not Forgotten, edited by Bruce Kauffman, is a collection of poetry and prose by authors living in the North Shore Series geographic area, Port Hope to Kingston on the north shore of Lake Ontario. The almost 400 pages in That Not Forgotten published by Hidden Brook Press, have rallied together to paint a deeply personal portrait hand-tipped with nostalgia. That Not Forgotten will easily be one of the most important Ontario anthologies for many years to come. Released June 1, 2012.

mic check: an anthology of spoken word in canada (2008)

“Drum” and “Feel the Old School” (poems)

Mic Check is Canada’s first-ever anthology of Canadian spoken word poetry, featuring the top performance poets in the country. From Halifax to Montreal to Toronto to Vancouver, Mic Check compiles the spoken word poetry that has been rocking poetry slam stages all over Canada. The poems are gritty, raw, powerful and uncensored. Featuring young poets from a variety of backgrounds, Mic Check is a primer for anyone curious about spoken word, and an ideal anthology to get a taste of what the strong Canadian spoken word scene has to offer. Released April 28, 2008.

Poet Psychology Volume III (2014) 

The final installment in the Poet Psychology project combines poetry with music. This highly diverse, intriguing, conceptual, and accessible composition includes twelve of Greg’s music-infused poems. Released March 14, 2014.

poet psychology volume II (2011)

The second of three CDs in the series focuses on Greg’s live performances in the late 2000s and early 2010s in Ottawa, first at the Canadian Spoken Wordlympics and then at Capital Slam, the poetry slam series he co-founded. Released January 1, 2011.

poet psychology volume I (2010)

The first of the three CDs in a series, this disc has one dozen of Greg’s poems recorded a cappella. 
Released October 1, 2010. 

capital thoughts (2005)

Greg’s first recording is an EP with seven tracks at the beginning of his spoken word career. It includes one live track, Body Politic, and the longest poem Greg ever wrote for performance purposes, T.K.M.O. (Take Me Out). Released December 1, 2005.